N.Y. minimum wage would reach $9 an hour by '15 under proposed budget

ALBANY, N.Y. — Lives of New Yorkers from the working poor to millionaires, schoolchildren to their teachers, as well as employers and unemployed war veterans would be touched under a tentative state budget deal.

The provisions were among some details surfacing today, a day after Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders announced a "conceptual framework" of a budget. Staffs were furiously working to craft bills that could be voted on in coming days by the Senate and Assembly. Cuomo and lawmakers were still working out some aspects of their deal today.

Some advocates for the poor also had a chance to review the centerpiece of the budget deal, an increase in the minimum wage to $9 that would be spread over three years without automatic increases tied to inflation. The $7.25-an-hour wage would rise to $8 in January, $8.75 a year later and cap at $9 a year after that.

"Eight dollars is morally unacceptable," said Mark Dunlea of the Hunger Action Network. He called a $9 wage "pathetically low."

"Lawmakers continue to force the lowest income workers to work for sub-poverty wages," Dunlea said.

Frank Mauro, an analyst with the progressive Fiscal Policy Institute, said the new minimum wage would have to be $11.15 just to return the working poor's buying power to its 1970 level.

"We need to return their purchasing power," Mauro said.

The tentative deal for a New York state budget includes several measures for schools, which will see a bump of nearly $1 billion in the state's more than $20 billion school aid fund. That's an increase over the $890 million hike Cuomo proposed before the legislative negotiations took place.

The deal also includes $350 tax rebates in 2014 to middle-class families with at least one child and a household income of $40,000 to $300,000. The checks wouldn't be sent to taxpayers until 2014.

The budget deal includes $25 million to expand pre-kindergarten in low-income schools, $25 million to help school districts extend the school day and year, and $15,000 in annual stipends for top teachers.

Tax cuts and credits spread over three years, with most effective in the 2014 election year, would include a $10,000 credit for hiring a veteran who joined the service since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Hiring a disabled veteran would draw a $15,000 credit.

Many of these tax breaks would be paid for by the second extension of what was to be a temporary income tax increase. Cuomo and legislators agree to extend the $2 billion tax aimed at millionaires, although the Democratic governor and Senate Republicans strongly opposed the measure in their 2010 campaigns as a job killer that added to New York's image as a high-tax state. They agree to a second extension in this budget, avoiding having to extend the tax when it expires next year, an election year for Cuomo and lawmakers.

Other provisions released today include a new marketing program to promote tourism, produce and other New York-made foods.

Tax cuts would be provided to employers hiring recent veterans or young workers, and to small businesses and corporations in one of the nation's highest taxed states.

State spending would rise less than 2 percent under the plan expected to be voted on by the Senate and Assembly by the end of Sunday. The total budget, including one-time federal funds for relief from Superstorm Sandy, is about $143 billion.

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But New York City schools won't get the $250 million reimbursement they sought. The schools lost that increase from last year because the United Federation of Teachers union and Mayor Michael Bloomberg failed to agree on a teacher evaluation system by a deadline set in state law.

A Bloomberg spokesman had no comment Wednesday night.

Several thorny policy issues that appeared to become stalled during budget talks over the last week will be held for debate until after the budget passes — although a governor loses some leverage on policy disputes after a budget is approved. Politics in Albany involves trading on often unrelated issues.

Awaiting discussion is Cuomo's proposed restrictions to the stop and frisk tactic being used by New York City police and the governor's plan to de-criminalize the small amounts of marijuana often found during the frisks. Cuomo wants public display of small amounts of marijuana to be a violation, not a more serious misdemeanor that Democrats say can ruin young lives.

There also was no agreement on penalties for synthetic marijuana, the dangerous drug known as bath salts or on changes to the gun control law passed in January in response to the Newtown, Conn., school shootings. Those talks continue.